


Red Tide

by gardnerhill



Category: Mой нежно любимый детектив | My Dearly Beloved Detective (1986)
Genre: Community: watsons_woes, Gen, Menstruation, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 22:05:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7481706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is one woe most Watsons don’t have to deal with. My first story in this ‘verse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Tide

**Author's Note:**

> For the 2016 July Watson's Woes Promptfest prompt #13, **"Nature is red in tooth and claw":** Let your entry today feature an element of nature that is less than pleasant.

“You should have stayed at home tonight, Jane. Or at least you could stay behind in the office and let Mr. Green make you tea and refresh your hot-water bottle.”

I crouched down behind my partner in the icy fog of the alley, gritting my teeth against the terrible pain in my guts. Of course my astute friend, who in addition to being a clever detective in her own right was as much a woman as was I, would instantly deduce the source of my distress. “And leave you to face this monster without someone to watch your back? It’s only a little cramping.”

Shirley Holmes laughed a little, with all her warmth and affection in that sound. “The toughest men of Scotland Yard would be howling on the ground with what a woman calls ‘a little cramping.’ But very well, dear one.” Her cool ‘detective’ voice came back as she turned her mind back to our suspect that we’d sworn to trail tonight. “If you will insist on accompanying me on the second day of your menses, Watson, this may prove a very valuable asset. It may involve some indelicacy. Will you mind?”

Even through my belly trying to turn inside out, I grinned, thinking of my counterpart’s words when they went after Irene Adler. “In a good cause? Not in the slightest.”

***

So it was that Shirley Holmes and I finally sent a slayer of prostitutes, always so careful to hide his traces, into the arms of the police.

He had always disrobed his victims, and dismembered them in his bath before consigning them and their ruined garments to a furnace; this much Shirley had deduced, but could provide no solid proof. But a woman’s knife-torn shirtwaist, soaked with what was undeniably fresh human blood, “carelessly” left half out of his rubbish incinerator just in time for the street-constable to walk past and espy it, led straight to his door, and inside was all the proof needed for the police. Inspector Lester was praised to the skies and richly rewarded for finally catching the fiend.

“He won’t even send us flowers as a thank-you,” I fumed, parked at my desk with a new shirtwaist, a hot-water-bottle, and a cup of cinnamon tea valiantly battling the pain.

“That would require us admitting that we planted evidence on that creature, guilty though he was. And if we told Lester just how we got that blood, he’d turn green and faint just as the Queen gave him his medal. No, our reward is a safer street for the poor unfortunates of the dock.” Shirley Holmes looked up from pasting the newspaper stories about the murderer’s capture into her scrapbook. “Jane, now that you no longer need to wear it, may I have my coat back? It is a trifle chilly here near the window.”

Shamefacedly I reached up to unhook the coat I’d worn to cover my shirtless top on our way home from the dock. Behind it on the rack was my own coat. And in the large front pocket of my coat…

Shirley Holmes smiled at the squeal I gave as I pulled out a box of my favourite Cadbury’s assortment. “Forgive me, my dear Watson, I can never resist a touch of the dramatic. And you must agree that at certain times of the month, chocolate is better than medicine!”


End file.
